#Team Ladybug

[vgadvisor]

[acquired-stardust]

Touhou Luna Nights PC 2019

[satoshi-mochida]

Touhou Luna Nights ‘5-Year Anniversary’ physical editions announced for PS5, Switch - Gematsu

Selecta Play will release “5-Year Anniversary” physical standard and limited editions for Touhou Luna Nights for PlayStation 5 and Switch in North America and Europe later in 2024, the distributor announced.

The standard edition will include a printed color manual and special sleeve. The limited edition includes a printed manual, an original soundtrack double CD, three alternative inlays, a serialized certificate of authenticity, and a SteelBook case, all housed in an oversized collector’s box.

Touhou Luna Nights is currently available digitally for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam.

Watch the physical edition announcement trailer below. View a set of screenshots and package shots at the gallery.

Physical Edition Announce Trailer

North America

Europe

[ladyirisreviews]

Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth - Review

This is the second Team Ladybug game on Steam, it came after Touhou Luna Nights, which I reviewed.

Despite being interested in it only because it was a Team Ladybug Metroidvania, it did a great job of making me interested in the source material, which I will be reading into very soon.

To explain the plot of the game, first I need to give some context.

The setting is based on a series of light novels called Record of Lodoss War, they date back to the 80s, and another novel was released not too long ago, 12 years after the last one, and this game serves kind of like an introduction to this new series of novels in a way.

The game does give you some backstory, enough to establish its own, coherent narrative, and even without reading the novels, I feel this game can be enjoyed, along with its themes.

Though I would imagine reading the novels and then playing this game would be nice for the fans since you would know all the characters and their backstories.

The plot of the game is pretty simple, you are told there was once a group of heroes who brought peace to the land of Lodoss, and that the only girl in the group, Deedlit the elf, fell in love with a human.

She wakes up in an unknown place, with her memories feeling hazy, she must travel the labyrinth she finds herself into and discover what she is truly doing there.

As I mentioned, you will find several characters from the original series, from protagonists to major antagonists, but despite the game not explaining each character, you can see a theme in Deedlit's journey, and it's one of sorrow and loss.

The game doesn't have that much dialogue, but in the little it has it's able to convey those emotions at the end of the game, there is not much else to talk about in terms of plot, so it's time to talk about the gameplay.

The gameplay is just a bit similar to Castlevania Symphony of the Night, but there are big differences, for one, you can aim in 8 directions for your attack, and you also have a bow you can freely aim.

Magic works similarly as it does in Touhou Luna Nights, but there is one more mechanic that mixes things up, very early on in the game, you get wind and fire spirits, and you can switch between which one is active.

This changes the element of your attacks, and when you have any of them active, you can level up the other one by defeating enemies, by reaching the max level, you automatically regain health while having that spirit active, getting hit removes a whole level though.

Another property the spirits have is that you completely absorb the damage of the same element, which replenishes your MP, which reminds me of Ikaruga in a way.

I like this system very much, at the start I thought it would make things too easy, but you die pretty fast if you are not careful, and the HP recovery rate is not that high to feel like it removes danger completely.

I especially like this system in bosses that use both of the elements, it's very satisfying for me to learn their patterns to optimally defeat them.

The level design is also alright, it's the typical "unlocking an ability or key to progress" kind of design, but it also takes the spirit changing into account, including obstacles that need it to be surpassed.

While the level design isn't as great as in Touhou Luna Nights, it's still pretty good.

Enemies are also pretty standard, what stands out are the bosses, as I mentioned before, they put the spirit changing to the test, and they all have at least one tricky attack that might need some figuring out.

The boss rush has the same issue it had on Touhou Luna Nights though, they have the original health, making it so the first few die in just a couple of hits.

The game has some extra features though, after you complete the game once you can pick a number of modifiers to the game, like always staying on level 1, 1 HP, spirit levels being always 1, or retaining all of your learned spells.

For me, that increases replayability quite a lot, I kind of wish these types of settings were retroactively added into Touhou Luna Nights, these challenge runs in Metroidvanias are very fun to try, and giving you the choice to pick exactly what you want makes me more willing to try one.

And that is pretty much all there is to the gameplay, it's pretty solid overall.

The only stuff left to mention is the graphics and music, and they are both fantastic.

Team Ladybug did a great job yet again, the sprite work is incredible, just like with Touhou Luna Nights, visually the game is eye-candy, though the afterimage of the Deedlit can be bothersome sometimes, you can turn it off if you want.

And that's pretty much it, I heavily recommend this game, even if you never heard of Record of Lodoss war or haven't read the novels yet, I think this game holds up on its own, And if you are a fan of the series already, it will be a very cool experience.

[twohitgames]

Blade Chimera retrasa su lanzamiento en Nintendo Switch y PC

PLAYISM y WSS Playground han decidido retrasar la fecha de lanzamiento de Blade Chimera para permitir mejoras adicionales de calidad y pulido. El último metroidvania del Team Ladybug, Blade Chimera, estaba previsto para su lanzamiento en agosto. Blade Chimera es un metroidvania completamente nuevo y original del Team Ladybug, el equipo detrás de los metroidvanias en 2D aclamados por la crítica…

[bonesbugs]

Adrien takes full advantage of his face post-reveal

[keybladespirit]

50. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth

This is such a good little metroidvania! I played another game (SMT Synchronicity) by this studio a while back and this one proves to me that they just really "get" what makes this style of game work on a fundamental level. There's some jank in both good and bad ways, but I feel like the fact that I was able to have such a good time without needing any context into the larger Record of Lodoss War franchise is a really good sign. I certainly would have enjoyed the story a lot more if I knew who all these characters were, but the core themes and basic arc of Deedlit's journey hit really well regardless. Highly recommended.

[zentendo]

Upcoming Games - Blade Chimera on Nintendo Switch

Prepare to be immersed in the neon-soaked streets of a cyberpunk city with Blade Chimera, a newly-announced 2D side-scrolling action game that promises a unique twist to the genre. Developed by Team Ladybug and WSS Playground, the creative minds behind Touhou: Luna Nights and Needy Streamer Overload, and published by Playism, Blade Chimera introduces the Lumina Sword, a weapon that not only fends…

[geekcavepodcast]

Blade Chimera Nintendo Indie World Showcase Announcement Trailer

Team Ladybug's Blade Chimera is a 2D action game where you use the Lumina Sword, a demon-turned-weapon that can slash through time, to battle your way through a dystopian cyberpunk world flooded with demons, monsters, and spirits.

Blade Chimera releases for Nintendo Switch in Spring 2024.

[ninadove]

Season 5 in a nutshell

[chocostrwberry]

Hi again!

My delulu brain be like: OMG, Luka and Alix interacting?! They could be besties in your AU!!! or even dating XD. Their interactions would be so much fun!

THEYRE BESTIESSS,, and even in the band sometimes Luka improvs and no one else really likes it when he does that except her so they get along really well!!

And since their powers are both time-related, they don’t really take anything serious since they can just, go back and fix it ahehfeheihs

So they just goof around and crack jokes- (Luka cracks the joke, Alix laughs then adds something funnier, then Luka laughs harder)

[vgadvisor]

[lc-holy]

Conférence Masterclass 808 (Translation)

I've taken the liberty of translating the conference that took place last year with the writing director of Miraculous (Sébastien Thibaudeau). It was only made public when someone posted a video of the conference a short while ago.

In this conference, Sébastien Thibaudeau will talk about the creation of Miraculous and his work on the series. He is joined by Chloé Paye, a new scriptwriter working on Miraculous season 6.

Sébastien talks a lot and repeats himself a bit, so the summary can be a bit confusing.

I strongly advise you to go and listen to the video if you understand French. There are a lot of details I'm going to leave out, and Sébastien is very funny.

Photo belongs to mlbfanfr on twitter.

Please be respectful in comments or tags. If you want to debate on things related to this conference, please make your own post. I apologize if there are any mistakes, I'm French and I'm not fluent in English.

-12 years ago, Sébastien arrived at Zagtoon, a studio that was just starting out and had yet to produce and broadcast any series. The producer (Jérémy Zag) and Sébastien hit it off and decided to start working together. Zag decides to give Sébastien total freedom over his projects. Sébastien then decides to put the spotlight on scriptwriters, because in this profession they are unfortunately poorly paid and never stay on the same projects.

So they produced a cartoon called Kobushi. A little-known series that did rather well, even if it didn't stay on the "Gulli" channel for long. The scriptwriters and producer were happy with the end result, as it was produced in a very short time.

Jeremy Zag then proposed another project, which he thought was quite good, but which he was unable to sell to broadcasters. At the time, the project was called "Ladybug". No one was interested, as the project was aimed more at an adult audience than a children's audience. Sébastien had to make sure that the project could be broadcast on Disney and TF1.

There was only a "trailer" also called "Ladybug" (but you'll find the video under the title Ladybug PV) animated by Toei animation. At the time, Sébastien had not yet been hired by Zagtoon. It was Jérémy Zag who convinced Toei animation to work with them (no mean feat, since Toei animation doesn't work with anyone).

So Sébastien started working with Thomas Astruc (the man who wrote and created the "Ladybug" project). At first, he didn't want to work on this project because he found it complicated. Thomas wanted to make a series for adults, but at the time, it was very complicated to make a cartoon for adults. What's more, they didn't have enough money to take on such a project. Sébastien finally agreed, but there were some changes to be made, which Thomas accepted.

-What Sébastien appreciated most in this project was the romantic comedy, the love square between the two main characters.

To meet the requirements of the cartoon industry, "Ladybug" had to be set in a neutral universe, in other words, in an imaginary country or the USA, but Zag, who loves Paris, declared that the cartoon had to be set in Paris.

In the end, Thomas Astruc's entire project was discarded, leaving only the love story between the two heroes and the city of Paris, where the story was to take place.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Sébastien explains how he writes Marinette's first dialogues: He says he talks a lot in real life, so he writes Marinette like him. She says out loud whatever she's thinking.

For Chat noir, he makes him tell his father's jokes. Something TF1 doesn't accept. The TV channel went so far as to refuse to validate the Bible (a collection of information on the series and episodes) until it had removed the sentence: “Chat noir makes jokes”. Sebastien has therefore removed the sentence, but will continue to make Chat noir tell jokes.

-The writing director's job is to get the producer, creator and broadcaster to agree. The series broadcast on TF1 and Disney are very different. TF1 wants series whose story can be told in a single episode, unlike Disney, which wants series whose story spans several episodes.

Sébastien and TF1 agree that Miraculous will be a series with one story per episode, a "Formula Show".

He cites the example of Dora the Explorer episodes, where every episode is the same: Dora goes on an adventure from point A to point B, she has to find 3 clues, then she meets Swiper, she sings a song to make Swiper go away, she uses the talking map to get from one place to another, then Dora manages to get to point B and the episode ends.

This episode format is used for children, to give them a reassuring framework, as they build themselves up through repetition. That's why series like Dora work so well with young children.

So Sebastien sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show. A person gets angry, is akumatized, then marinette transforms into Ladybug then frees the person from the akumatization and… The End.

It's also for this reason that Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.

But he tried to go against what he had planned with TF1, by slipping little extra stories into certain episodes. Audiences were receptive to these slightly hidden stories. The TV channel even asked Sébastien if there really were hidden things in the series, but he denied everything. Thanks to the positive reception from the public, TF1 agreed to develop the characters of Marinette and Adrien and flesh out the universe a little more.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Once the bible is written, they have to write a script. But first Sébastien, as writing director, needs to know the mood of the series, and to do this he calls on Thomas Astruc, the series creator. Thomas is a great fan of classical painting. A single painting can tell a complex scene with lots of detail. He wants the episodes of miraculous to be like these paintings, there will be very few shots, but in a single shot a lot will happen.

-Sébastien explains that one of the things Thomas wanted to convey in the series was emotion. They didn't want to do what a lot of children's cartoons do, which is to beat the bad guys and win at the end of the episode. They wanted to tell kids that it's normal to have negative emotions. We can also become better people, learn from our mistakes and so on. It also reassures TV channels by setting up scenes that are repeated in every episode: people get angry, people akumatize then people deakumatize, end of episode...

Once the TV channels had been reassured, they set about writing a script.

-Sébastien asks Thomas to write the ending, as they're not sure the series will work. They also wondered what the aim of the series was, and what they wanted to say to the children. The two of them sat down in an office and wrote the ending, which turned out to be just the end of an arc. He even adds that now that they've written a lot more, it's important for them to write in advance so that everything is clear to them.

-The first season was written by 19 authors, from home. He found it interesting that the series was written by several different authors, even if some of them didn't quite understand the premise of the series. One episode that Sébastien particularly appreciated was written by two “autrices” (I think it's weird to say “two female authors”, so I'll use the French word): the refletkta episode, with the story of Juleka who couldn't get into the photos. (Note that all the episodes were proofread by Sébastien and Thomas).

After that, they kept a few people on to work together on the scripts for subsequent seasons.

Sébastien explains that he keeps a close eye on the production of the episodes, to make sure that everything that goes into the picture is as faithful as possible to what they've written in the script.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-The kwamis exist thanks to Toei, who wanted funny little animals to sell plush toys. So the scriptwriters had to find a way to integrate kwamis into the story.

-(Again, Sébastien advises people to check out the Kobushi series if they can still watch it somewhere, or ask the leaker who leaked the whole of season 5 to give them the episodes (that's a joke, of course)).

-Sébastien talks about the Ikari gozen episode, which could have been a total failure because the storyboarder didn't fully understand the scenario. Sébastien asks Zag to redo the storyboard, which will add 10 weeks to the episode's deadline. The storyboarder admits that he's always done storyboards mechanically, without worrying whether the episode is good or not, whether the jokes are funny or not. Eventually, the episode was redone by the same storyboarder, resulting in the episode we all know today.

- They still have a lot to tell with Miraculous, to the point where they're wondering if they'll have enough seasons to tell everything they want to tell. Sebastien says there will be a season 6 and 7, and probably a season 8 and 9.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Chloé Paye met Sébastien when she was looking for an internship. She had never worked in animation, and knew nothing about Miraculous. She tells us how the scriptwriting team works. Each time, all the scriptwriters in the room have to be convinced of the script. They can sometimes spend hours on details to get everyone to agree.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- The driving force behind the series is that there must always be a secret between Marinette and Adrien. The lovesquare can never be broken, otherwise there's no series. Sébastien knows that some people are worried about this. Will they continue the lovesquare for another 4 seasons or more? How will they evolve? Sébastien says not to worry, they know where they want to go.

-It takes them 14 to 16 months to produce an episode, but it's often much longer due to unforeseen circumstances. And they don't work on one episode at a time, but on several at the same time. One episode takes a long time because of the 3D animation.

One of the things that's complicated with Miraculous 3d animation is that they can only display 3 characters at a time on screen, whereas the series requires them to display many more characters. It's also very difficult to correct animation errors, as this takes a lot of time.

-The TV networks were very surprised by the success of miraculous. They didn't think adults and children alike would watch the series. The TV channels were a little confused because they usually make series for a specific age group, but since miraculous had people of all ages watching, they weren't sure what to do.

- Sébastien says he's very happy that miraculous inspires a lot of people to create things, like writing fanfiction, however he's not interested in it because he doesn't want to be influenced by certain fans who would love to see certain things in the series.

- Writing direction also means paying attention to how the characters speak. They all have their own way of speaking. For example, Adrien will never say "j’te parle", but rather "Je te parle".

- During the writing process, the writers sometimes act out scenes to make the dialogue more natural. This is what happened with the episode "Gang of secrets". They felt that, with the success of the show and the pressure it was generating, they needed to write something to relieve their stress. So they wrote about Marinette and the enormous pressure she was under to keep all her secrets. The final scene, in which Marinette tells Alya that she's Ladybug, came naturally when they performed it together.

[satoshi-mochida]

Blade Chimera delayed to August - Gematsu

From Gematsu

Blade Chimera will launch for Switch and PC via Steam in August, a delay from its previously planned spring release window, publisher PLAYISM, publisher and developer WSS playground, and developer Team Ladybug announced.

Get the latest details below.

■ Game Overview

When the past catches up to you in various forms, desolation becomes strength. Blade Chimera is a brand new original metroidvania by Team Ladybug, the team behind the critically acclaimed 2D metroidvanias Touhou Luna Nights, the Touhou Project fan game which has sold over 50,000 copies, and the Record of Lodoss War fan game Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth-. In Blade Chimera, the demon Lux transforms into your trusty weapon—the Lumina Sword, which you will have to use to interfere with the past, create new platforms, and shield yourself from danger to explore a desolate world. Other than the Lumina Sword, you will also have access to other weapons such as swift daggers and long-range guns. Find the perfect weapons to suit your fighting style. This game features a skill tree system. Upon leveling up, you will receive points that can be spent on unlocking skills that will aid you on your journey. The whole game is depicted in Team Ladybug’s critically acclaimed gorgeously animated pixel art, in which each and every frame of every gunshot is painstakingly detailed. Feast your eyes on the harsh yet beautiful dystopian cyberpunk world.

Release Delayed to August 2024: Joining Steam Next Fest in June!

Blade Chimera was originally planned to release in spring 2024, but in order to further polish the game and improve on its quality, the release date has been postponed to August 2024. The game is chock-full of story and gameplay content alike, and Team Ladybug’s signature pixel art is being further refined. We’re terribly sorry for the delay, but we hope the improved Blade Chimera will be high-quality and be able to entertain a wide audience. The newly released trailer showcases many new boss battles and gimmicks, all painstakingly designed by Team Ladybug. It offers a sneak peek into the world of the game… but in order to let more players get their hands on the actual game experience, Blade Chimera will be joining Steam Next Fest in June (next month!) with a public demo. Please check out the demo too when it releases!

■ About the Game

Play as Shin, a Demon Hunter who has lost his memories and is now exploring the world together with his sword—the transformed Lumina demon Lux—recollecting memories about yourself, your missing wife, and skills you’ve forgotten. Each time you recollect a lost skill, Lux changes form according to the will of her wielder, making Shin stronger and granting access to more areas of the world.

The Story

The Story

The game takes place in the near future, where warped monsters and ghouls have appeared from nowhere, swarming cities and forcing humans to battle against these creatures they’ve termed “demons” in an all-out Demon War. After 30 merciless years of war, the surviving humans have banded together under the Missa Association, a religious group formed by a leader who knows the secret to fighting the demons. Cities and civilizations continue to thrive despite the now regular sightings of bizarre monsters. Three years ago, a man known as Shin was rescued from among the rubble in a cryopreserved state. With no recollection of his past, he quickly becomes one of the association’s best warriors and protectors. However, when Shin comes across the brilliantly beautiful demon named Lux, she feels strangely familiar. This sensation of deja vu leads him to take her in, even if it means going against the creeds of the association. From that very instant, the past begins to slowly unfold, revealing the events that caused the city to take on its current form…

Watch a new trailer below. View a new set of screenshots at the gallery.

2nd Trailer

English

Japanese

[ladyirisreviews]

Drainus - Review

I'm very excited to review this, this is the third game of Team Ladybug, a developer team I am quite fond of, they made 2 of the best Metroidvanias out there and it might seem weird that their next game following 2 Metroidvanias was a shoot em up, but if you take a look at their 2 previous games, it does make sense.

Touhou Luna Nights is basically a fangame of the Touhou games, a bullet hell series, and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth had elements that were heavily inspired by shoot 'em ups, specifically, the element change system, which is similar to how Ikaruga works.

So them making a shoot 'em up seems very logical to me.

Another interesting fact is that this is their first completely original game, both of their previous games were based on an already existing franchise, so that makes this game even more special.

I'll start with a brief summary of the plot.

You follow Irina, a young woman who fights to destroy the evil galactic empire that has control over countless planets, she counts with the help of the incredibly handsome Gehnie, an artificial lifeform sent from the future.

He manages to steal the empire's secret weapon, the Drainus, and contacts Irina so she helps him free the universe from the empire.

The plot is fairly straightforward, but the inclusion of obtainable disks scattered through the levels, that contain conversations between characters on both sides of the conflict, help flesh out the world.

Now, moving out of the plot, because I don't want to spoil too much, let's get into the gameplay.

When you boil it down, it's a very classic shoot 'em up, but it has some features that make it stand out a lot, for starters, the whole draining mechanic.

When you enter draining mode, you drain all energy-based projectiles you come in contact with, and when you exit draining mode or run out of meter, all of the stored energy auto-targets the enemies.

It's very reminiscent of Ikaruga, like how the upgrade system is reminiscent of Gradius, but they add their own, very unique spin to the system.

You start with a basic weapon, and each upgrade item will unlock the next equipment you have equipped, it can be a different laser weapon, a fleet of mini ships with different properties, missiles, or even a stat boost.

You can unlock them with special points you get after defeating enemies, and after purchasing them you can equip them wherever you want.

The equipment level you are currently into is displayed in the top middle by the power-up meter, once you get all of your equipment unlocked, any new upgrade items will charge your bombs.

You can also buy hard upgrades for your Drainus, like unlocking more equipment slots, increasing the draining gauge, and increasing the number of bombs.

The upgrades also work like your life meter, when you get hit you lose your highest upgrade, and if you get hit while you have none at all, you lose a life, which I think is quite friendly for players who aren't that good at shoot 'em ups, like me.

But if you want a greater challenge, there is the option to enable 1-hit kills, making the game way harder.

You can also change the speed of your ship whenever you like, making maneuvering in tight spaces easier.

The actual levels are very dynamic, there's a wide selection of enemies, environments, and transitions that keep the level fresh and fun the whole time.

And as a cherry on top, the bosses are extremely cool.

Most of them have more than one bar of HP, and when it depletes they morph into a completely different machine, the music also aids these encounters greatly.

The whole OST is incredible, really.

These are all the first boss!

The artwork is also incredible, it's in my opinion the best artwork in any of their games to date, it's something to admire.

So in a few words, this game has very tight controls, gameplay, upgrade system, and difficulty customizations, while also counting with an incredible OST and artwork.

So if you like shoot 'em ups, it's a must-play, and even if you don't play a lot of shoot 'em ups, it's a game anybody can enjoy due to its difficulty options, it's just that good.

I can see myself getting lost in doing challenge runs on this game, like I have been doing in Touhou Luna Nights and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, except on this game it's way easier to determine the rules because of the levels of customization.

I really mean it when I say: Go play this game.

[miraclechatbug]

Rena Rouge: How do you think the butterflies taste like?

Chat Noir: They taste bad

Rena Rouge:

Ladybug:

Carapace:

Ryuko:

Monarch:

Ladybug: You ate an aKUMA-